China Economy Growing Fast

http://money.cnn.com/2015/10/19/investi ... index.html

China is rapidly becoming the "world's leading economy", if it has not already surpassed America in that category.  I would like to see a graphic depiction of how much energy goes into supporting such economic growth.  Money is paper.  And you can't eat money.  So what is this growth?

As the human pop expands, cities consume increasingly greater amounts of energy from nature.  At the same time, some people are destroying natures capacity to manufacture energy.      

I feel trapped on a planet where the vast majority of the co-habitants do not care at all about nature, or just do not have a clue as to what is happening.  

Are these true? :  

1.  Capitalism destroys nature.  

2.  Economies must grow to survive.  

BTW, there is a new program coming up shortly that shows how the human race is going to easily overcome all these problems.  I think it is a NATGEO airing.  Did not pay any attention to the name of it, but Ron Howard narrates a portion.  I know that they are going to amaze us by showing how future humans will be manufacturing all the water that will be needed.  So don't worry about anything, because they have everything figured out for all of us.  

Truth is….we do not have a chance.  

1. Yes
2. Yes

Joe

1. Yes. I used to think capitalism was great because it created competition between producers to create a "better mousetrap", thus producing better products for all. If that was ever true, it is not now. For the most part, today's capitalism is a wasteful soulless shortsighted system designed to separate the un informed from any wealth they may have. It relies on marketing to create non existent needs, permits self destructive behavior, and to sells goods using fear, confusion, and planed obsolescence. It has created a world full of toxic junk (many people included). Capitalism has also divided many cultures into haves and have-nots, dissolving the homogeneous nature many once had.
These same techniques have been applied to the production and marketing of food. Americans suffer greatly from a preponderance of nutrition-less and toxic foods that have produced learning difficulties in children, and many health issues including the striking rise in diabetes found in all ages.
Capitalism controls our government and election process. It funds all candidates, guaranteeing it's collection of "favors", from whoever wins. It encourages and creates needless war, to bolster and maintain the multi billion dollar warfare products industry. It has corrupted our justice system, allowing individuals to build and run prisons for profit that have successfully engaged corrupt judges to keep them full. You may recall it was the US Supreme Court that decided who are president was a few years back. Capitalism has greatly lessened the practice of democracy and neglected our Constitution.

2. Yes. The practice of capitalism is the opposite of sustainability. It is a hungry beast that avoids truth, puts little or nothing aside for future use, and encourages it's participants to do the same.

But we still have free will...I encourage anyone to use it for the greater good.

Interesting discussion.

There is no easy answer and there are many uncomfortable truths. Capitalism as we know it and practice it is evil, anybody can see that, but socialism as has been practiced around the world is nothing but a dictatorship or worse, Capitalism for the benefit of a very select few.

From the dawn of human society there has been a divide between the privileged and the poor, it has simply been a matter of degree. It is an unfortunate law of the jungle, and humans are no better than the animals we love to see and photograph. Those that don't feed aggressively at the kill, simply wither and die.

In a truly egalitarian world, the weak and the poor would find comfort and care and if you think about it, in most modern societies they do. When basic needs are met or provided by societal laws, any further elevation of living standards comes at a cost. Reward and punishment are wired into our biology. Without incentives or deterrents, there would be no human progress.

What is really needed, IMHO, is some kind of check and balance over rampant consumerism. We in the US are only 5% of the world's population and yet we consume 35% of its resources. We are (to some extent) conscious of our own environment and yet are happy to allow other nations to destroy theirs in order to satiate our own thirst for goods and commodities. Why blame the poor Chinese? They are only playing catch-up. Their population was always much higher than the rest of the world and up until the early 19th century, they, along with the rest of Asia ran 80% of the world's economy. The pendulum is slowly swinging back, but in the meanwhile their own infrastructure has gone down the tubes.

A truly global, non-parochial approach is needed to make this planet viable and green. For this, the world will need to set aside their differences and prejudices, be willing to share technology without being overprotective of it, be willing to share wealth and resources and work together.

That, is an extremely unlikely scenario, the world is too polarized. I for one am quite pessimistic. But I hope I am proven wrong.

Pradeep

No...people destroy nature. For every fault or detriment that can be exampled about capitalism one can also be exampled that gives benefit. It's not about this or that economic system. Before capitalism there was no middle class for instance, just dirt poor and wealthy decadent rich. Before capitalism there was little technology and billions of people were suffering for it. Short life spans diseases. And any alternative economic system will also have it's share of faults. Unless we all want to go back living as animals we must face the reality that we are going to be a problem to the planets health. It's about what guides us, our belief system. Of course there will always be some who will never believe in anything but what they want and be damned everyone else. Nothing we can do to change those few. But the more people who believe in a healthy environmental outlook the more other people will favor that way too. It's catchy.

Perhaps we are stuck with the religious dogma of the past that began man's elevation out of the primitive life. The one that said go forth and multiply as ye is the commander and owner of all that is. I think we wanted that belief system because it benefited us. But looking at those societies that lived with respect for nature and the environment are also good examples of what we can be. Native American folklore and religion is loaded with examples of reverence to the rest of the worlds creatures as equals and they survived fairly well.

All we need is a philosophy and set of laws that mandates that any action would have pass an eco friendly test. This would change how were do things. We are doing it now and have been for decades slowly, but damages have been done already and that's a big part of what we are enduring now. Our environmental laws need to be strengthened and built into the constitution even. As is, our "laws" are more like guidelines...not enough teeth..

Paul